


Promise

by cosmicenergy



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Almost Kiss, Crying, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, healthy dose of hugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26674096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicenergy/pseuds/cosmicenergy
Summary: Dex never cries.Throughout their four years at Samwell, Nursey is pretty sure he’s seen almost every single member of the Samwell Men’s Hockey team cry.But he’spositivethat he’s never seen Dex do it.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse & William "Dex" Poindexter, Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 16
Kudos: 249





	Promise

Dex never cries.

Throughout their four years at Samwell, Nursey is pretty sure he’s seen almost every single member of the Samwell Men’s Hockey team cry.

But he’s _positive_ that he’s never seen Dex do it.

He remembers watching Holster cry while sitting on the terrible green couch in the Haus living room after watching Dear Evan Hansen for the first time; surrounded by Ransom, Bitty’s baked goods, and a pile of tissues. He remembers seeing Ransom cry, through the cracked door into the attic, hunched over his computer while he was applying to grad schools.

He remembers seeing Lardo cry once or twice, too. The first time was late at night after a piece of art meant for her portfolio hadn’t turned out quite right. He remembers sitting next to her on her bedroom floor as she stared at the pages in her sketchbook, tears slowing dripping onto the ink-covered pages. The second time he had seen her cry was after Shitty got accepted into Harvard, but she had snuck out of the room before Nursey even had time to process what was happening.

He’s seen Shitty cry more times than he can count; from Andover to Samwell to Harvard, and for both good reasons and bad. He remembers watching as Jack cried after winning the Stanley cup, tears pixelated through the television screen as his friend’s cheers echoed loudly around him.

He remembers seeing Bitty cry, too; from the late night tears shed in the Haus kitchen over his thesis up to his final kiss on the ice. Chowder’s tears come more easily than most people, and despite his tough goalie exterior, Nursey knows that without fail he will cry every single time that it’s suggested they watch Titanic during frog bonding movie nights. And, without fail, Nursey has watched him cry over Jack and Rose every single time. He loves him for it.

Hell, he’s even seen the tadpoles cry before. Though truthfully, it was because they were all drunk at a kegster and Tango’s dance moves were probably some of the most terrible that he’s ever seen in his entire life. He’s still not quite sure if Whiskey and Ford were crying out of laughter or embarrassment.

Yet Dex, his _best friend_ , who’s seen _Nursey_ cry more times that Nursey honestly wants to remember, has never cried in front of him.

So it’s no surprise that it comes as a shock when Nursey walks into the dimly lit Haus kitchen and sees Dex standing there, hands clenched so tight around the edge of the counter that they’re practically white, eyes bloodshot and puffy, with tears lightly falling down his face. It’s close to three a.m. and the Haus is silent, which only serves to amplify the sound of Dex’s labored breathing and the pounding of Nursey’s own heart.

There’s only three feet that separate them and yet Nursey feels like there’s miles and miles stretching out between them. This Dex, the one that stands before him, is not a Dex he knows how to deal with. After four years together at Samwell, Nursey knows how to deal with almost every one of Dex’s emotions; from anger to embarrassment to frustration.

And Nursey’s a poet, for _fucks_ sake.

He should be good at dealing with raw emotions and sadness, yet he has no fucking clue what do when Dex finally looks over at him. _I need to fix this_ , he thinks. _Dex fixes everything for everyone else, how the fuck do I fix this?_

The moonlight filtering in through the partially closed curtains cast shadows across his face, and even in the pale light Nursey can see the sadness etched into the lines on Dex’s face. All the thoughts that were bouncing around his head scatter, his brain falling silent as their eyes lock. Without thinking, cause frankly it’s three in the morning and Nursey is _fucking_ tired and his best friend is just standing there _crying_ which means there’s really no time for thoughts anymore, Nursey opens his arms.

Dex is moving before Nursey even registered what he just did. Within seconds, Nursey finds Dex’s pale arms wrapping around his waist and his head pressed against the crook of his neck. Nursey wraps his arms around Dex’s shoulders and feels Dex tighten his own grip around Nursey. He can feel Dex’s labored breathing against his neck, and instinctively reaches upwards with one of his hands so he can thread it through Dex’s hair.

He hears Dex sniffle as his fingers thread through his hair, and Nursey can tell he’s started crying again from the way that the collar of his shirt has become damp and cool against his skin. He knows that he should probably say something, _anything_ , to comfort Dex, but for once Nursey is left speechless.

He’s speechless, because he just found his best friend crying alone in the middle of the night for who knows how long, and he has no idea how to make it better.

He feels Dex begin to shake inside his arms, or maybe he had been shaking the entire time and Nursey was too busy thinking _oh fuck Dex is crying I need to do something_ to notice until that very moment. As gently as he can, he places both his hands on Dex’s hips and tries to lead him towards the couch in the living room. He makes it about two steps before he trips backwards, causing Dex’s arms to tighten around him almost instinctively.

“Smooth, Nursey,” He hears Dex laugh wetly, the sound so quiet Nursey probably wouldn’t have heard it at all if Dex’s mouth wasn’t practically pressed against his neck. Nursey rolls his eyes, even though Dex couldn’t see it anyway, and just tries to focus on leading Dex back towards the couch and not focus on how warm Dex’s hands feel wrapped around his waist.

Nursey manages to come to a stop in front of the couch, before taking a look around the dark living room. He watches Dex begin to pull away from him, as if he was going to make a move to sit on the couch, before reaching out to grab his hand and stop him. Through the dark, he can see the tear tracks on Dex’s cheeks and they almost distract him enough from the eyebrow that Dex is raising at him.

“Come on,” Nursey chooses to mumble instead, wrapping his hand tighter around Dex’s wrist and dragging him off towards the basement. Without many windows, it’s almost impossible to see around the basement without lights during the day, so when Nursey opens the door and steps inside blindly, he realizes very quickly that he made a mistake. He feels himself begin to fall down the stairs almost immediately, accepting that it’s just his fate that he was going to break his neck while trying to help Dex, if not for the arm reaching out and wrapping itself securely around his waist.

“Be careful,” he hears Dex whisper, voice softly echoing out from behind him. Dex’s arm stays firmly planted around his waist until they reach the bottom of the stairs; the concrete of the basement floor cool against Nursey’s bare feet.

“How do you live with such cold floors?” Nursey whispers, after a moment, earning a soft laugh from Dex.

“Cause I’m normal and wear socks,” he whispers back, voice cracking a little.

Instinctively, Nursey reaches out towards him to find Dex reaching back. Honestly, he shouldn’t be surprised at this point; they’re almost always in sync on and off the ice these days, so Nursey shouldn’t be surprised that Dex was reaching out for him.

“Hey,” Nursey whispers, and although they’re in the basement and have no chance of waking up any of their teammates, it feels wrong to talk any louder. He feels Dex’s warm hand find a home on his hip, and finds himself turning so that they’re facing each other, chest to chest.

“Hey,” Dex mumbles back.

 _So that’s how this is going to go_ , Nursey thinks.

“Come on,” Nursey says for the second time that night, before turning to lead Dex back towards his bed. He’s not ashamed to admit that he’s thought about what it would be like to be in Dex’s bed for other reasons, he knows himself and his pathetically huge crush on his best friend too well to deny that, but the idea of being there while Dex is upset is almost more intimate than anything else. Just the thought alone of whatever hurt Dex bad enough to make him cry is enough to make Nursey’s heart start aching all over again.

So he blindly drags Dex in the direction of his bed, this time without any trips, and sits down on the edge before he can even begin to think about it. Dex sits down next to him and freezes for a second, as though his brain is running a mile a minute and doesn’t know what to do next, before exhaling softly. Before Nursey can even open his mouth, he feels Dex wrap an arm around his waist and push him back towards the bed so that they’re laying down next to each other.

He feels Dex’s arm tighten around his waist again, and mindlessly reaches out to run his hands through Dex’s hair. He feels Dex sigh from where his head is pressed into his own shoulder.

“Wanna talk about it?” He asks softly. He feels Dex shakes his head against his shoulder and sighs. “Fine, if you don’t want to talk about it that’s okay, but I am going to hug you until you feel better.”

Dex laughs, earning a light punch into his shoulder. “What, you don’t appreciate my hugs bro?”

He watches as Dex turns his head further into his shoulder, laughing slightly through closed eyes.

“Fine,” Nursey hums dramatically, “I’ll just leave you down here with no hugs if you don’t appreciate them.”

He makes a move as if he was going to stand, but barely shifts upwards before Dex’s entire body is thrown on top of his. “No, don’t go,” Dex cries out, voice cracking as though the words hurt to come out. His voice was so vulnerable, so broken, as though he actually thought that Nursey was going to get up and leave him there. “Hey, no Dex don’t worry,” Nursey whispered into his neck, sliding back down onto the bed and wrapping his arms more comfortably around the other man. “I’m not going anywhere I promise.”

Dex sniffles, arms growing impossibly tighter where they’re wrapped around Nursey’s midsection. “Promise?” He asks wetly, and Nursey vaguely registers that he’s crying again.

“Hey Dex, fuck _Dex,_ _Will_ , listen to me,” Nursey says, words tumbling out of him. “I’m not going anywhere I promise, okay?”

Dex doesn’t respond, but he can hear his breathing falter briefly. For a split second, Nursey thinks fuck it before placing a kiss on Dex’s forehead and tucking his head into the crook of Dex’s neck. He feels as Dex’s body tenses for a split second, before relaxing into Nursey’s touch.

“Will,” he mumbles into Dex’s neck, lips brushing gently against his soft skin.

“Derek,” he hears Will whisper back, and is suddenly acutely aware of all the places that they’re touching. One of Dex’s arms is fully underneath Nursey while the other is wrapped snugly around his chest. Nursey registers that his hands somehow made their way to Dex’s lower back, and in between all else their legs became intertwined at the bottom of the bed. He _really_ isn’t sure how that happened.

“I’ll be here if you want to talk about it in the morning, or whenever you want to talk about it, or if you don’t want to talk about it at all that’s okay too,” he rambles, voice filled with both exhaustion and worry. “I’ll still be here regardless, I promise.”

He hears Dex sniffle again. Dex’s soft voice whispers “promise?” in his ear.

He makes it a point to wrap his arms around Dex even tighter, in what he hopes is a grounding movement. He vaguely registers that Dex’s breathing has started to come more evenly and that his body is less tense and shaky than it was before. Nursey considers that a win.

He twists slightly so that his lips are pressed against the side of Dex’s cheek; the skin damp from where the tears dripped down his skin.

“I promise,” he murmurs against his skin.

Dex is quiet after that; his chest rising and falling peacefully for the first time that night. Nursey lets out a sigh of relief, and lets himself be pulled into unconsciousness.

Whatever happens in the morning, if Dex wants to talk about it or not, Nursey will be there.

 _Promise_.


End file.
